MUMBAI: In the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) results announced on Monday, Navi Mumbai’s
Swayam Das, with a score of 99.4%, secured the first position in the country. Jamnabai Narsee School’s
Anokhi Mehta,who lives in
Vile Parle (W) bagged the second spot, sharing it with Jasmine Chahal from Jalandar. On the third position, five Mumbai students tied with seven others from across the country.
Swayam, a Koparkhairane resident, said, “I always thought of grabbing a spot in the select band of merit holders, but never thought of topping the country. I solved a lot of papers and that experience brought me the success. My aim is to be a researcher. I owe it to my parents and teachers who have been my support system all through.”
The state’s success rate of 99.79% differed marginally from last year’s 99.81%. The country’s success rate also dropped from 98.53% to 98.51%. The exams are conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations in March-April. The scores took into account English and the best four subjects. “The south and western regions performed extremely well and hence, most of the toppers are from Mumbai. We have not adopted any moderation this year,” said Gerry Arathoon, the CEO of CISCE. The western and southern region recorded a success rate of 99.67% and 99.69% respectively.
The trend of girls performing better than boys continued this year too.
Most schools in the city recorded a higher number of students scoring above 90% along with better results. Madhura Phadke, principal of Pawar Public School in Chandivli, said, “The number of students scoring distinction has increased from 91% last year to 97% this year. In fact, the school’s average too has jumped from 85.5% to 87%. Students from our school have scored exceptionally well in the second language and the highest in Hindi and Marathi is 99.” While the school’s highest in science was 100 marks for the first time, surprisingly, none of the students have bagged the perfect score in computer applications, said the principal. The numbers of students scoring 90% and above has seen a slight drop in the school—from 37% last year to 35% this year, added the principal.
Similarly, Kalyani Patnaik, principal, Hiranandani Foundation School, said that without moderation too, the results have been better this year in the school. “There has been a 5% increase in the number of students scoring 90% and above over the last year. Around 78 of the 128 students who gave the exam have scored 90% and above. Students have done better in English than last year. The scores were as expected by the school,” she said, referring to the scrapping of moderation marks.
However, English pulled down scores at several city schools. “Students have scored on the lower side in English. It is the mandatory component while calculating the percentage and hence, it brings down the score. The ICSE syllabus for English subject is anyway much advanced as compared to the other boards,” said Harish Luharuka, director, academics,
Universal Education, which has five ICSE schools in the state. Similar was the case at PG Garodia School, Ghatkopar, which registered an increase in number of students with a score of 90% and above, from 62 to 76, as compared to last year.
Zeenat Bhojaboy, Jamnabai Narsee School principal, said most ICSE students have done well in mathematics, science, social studies and physical education. The school had almost similar number of students scoring 90% and above in Class X last year too.
At some schools, the number of top scorers saw a dip. “We had 43 students scoring above 95% last year but the numbers are down to 22 this year. The number of students with a score of 90% came down from 92 to 80,” said a teacher from Pawar Public School, Bhandup.
Swayam Das